New Delhi: Only 51 votes mismatched with their voter verifiable slips against a total of around 1.25 crore votes counted in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, ThePrint has learnt.
The mismatch is around 0.0004 per cent of the total votes, and occurred due to human error and not machine error, said an Election Commission official who didn’t wish to be named.
The EC’s records show that 20,687 random Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) matched with the EVM count. A mismatch was found in eight VVPATs, said the official.
According to 56 D(4)(b) of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, if a discrepancy is found in the EVM and VVPAT, the vote recorded in the latter is counted, as was done in the 51 votes as well.
‘Proud’ EC
Faced with widespread criticism of faulty electronic voting machines, the Election Commission Sunday launched a campaign to spread a message about the infallibility of the EVMs, added the official.
The message carried by the EC ad said, “Know why EVM can never record a faulty vote”.
In a campaign whose first series carried the message “Proud to be the largest democracy of the world”, the EC said that a record number of 61.3 crore voters cast their votes in the Lok Sabha elections conducted in April-May this year across 10 lakh polling stations.
Each of these votes on the EVM was verifiable through the VVPAT.
As part of this series, the poll body will continue to publish more facts from the elections in order to spread more awareness about the logistics of the electoral process.
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